So five years ago today was when the download servers were turned on in the basement of the IBM OTI Labs on Queensview Drive in Ottawa.
It’s been one heck of a ride. I don’t think that anyone could have predicted the success that Eclipse has enjoyed. Thanks go to all of the project leaders and committers on the Eclipse, Equinox, PDE , RCP and JDT projects who made this all possible. Without your original vision, brains and hard work this entire phenomenon would have never happened. For all of you that have been with Eclipse since the beginning, a special thank you for your contributions. I hope you’re enjoying the impact that your software is having on the industry.
Thanks also goes to the Eclipse community. Eclipse has been embraced by so many: open source developers building their projects on Eclipse, the commercial ecosystem which has adopted Eclipse as the safe choice to build their products on, and the millions of developers who use Eclipse for their application development. I am constantly amazed at the energy and enthusiasm that comes from all of you that make up the Eclipse ecosystem. You are what keeps Eclipse the happening place it is.
Looking towards the future, I am excited to see what the next five years will bring. Today I see at Eclipse many very interesting new projects which have a ton of potential. There is a whole new generation of committers and leaders who will help define our future. Eclipse’s origins may be with our eponymous Java IDE, but the future of the community will be areas as varied as device software to SOA, from PHP to Ajax. (Space prevents me from listing all the projects I would love to mention.)
There has been some very nice coverage of the birthday in blogsphere and in the press today. Here’s a sampling:
- Peter Coffee and Darryl Taft, eWeek
- CNET
- SearchWebServices
- ComputerWorld
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the Prescott tonight for the Ottawa birthday party. I’m going to play my usual Tuesday night hockey game so I will be getting there a little bit late.
P.S. So far we have over 1300 signatures on the birthday card. Don’t forget to drop a line there and give your own thanks and Happy Birthday!
